How should I dry/cure?

[cAnnAmAn12]

Ok, this is my situation..Im at school with a plant back at home..about 4 hrs away and I was planning on harvesting mid oct. on a long weekend. I absoutley cant bring any back with me in order to keep an eye on the curing process cause i already got suspended for marijuana. Does anyone know a descrete, effective way to do it properly where i could leave it at my house and come back like 3-4 weeks later?

cAnnAmAn12 Reviewed by cAnnAmAn12 on 10-01-2008. How should I dry/cure? Ok, this is my situation..Im at school with a plant back at home..about 4 hrs away and I was planning on harvesting mid oct. on a long weekend. I absoutley cant bring any back with me in order to keep an eye on the curing process cause i already got suspended for marijuana. Does anyone know a descrete, effective way to do it properly where i could leave it at my house and come back like 3-4 weeks later? Rating: 5

[omgitbegreg]

You should be able to dry them when you're not around, but curing requires a decent amount of attention. Do you have any close friends back at home who could help you out? You wouldn't want to have invested all that time to grow and then not reap all of the benefits because you failed to properly cure the buds. That'd be something terrible!

[Adrift]

water curing!

[cAnnAmAn12]

yeah, i think I would honestly cry

[madeline]

Seeing as it takes 3-4 weeks for a decent cure I'd say you're SOL for going that route. But curing isn't really necessary...just get it dried out and jarred before you take off for school, even if it means being a day or two late getting back. A thorough drying is needed so mold doesn't set in during storage but it can be put off if you get them in jars after drying as much as possible then getting them into a refridgerator (I like to use the bottom shelf of the fridge). Then when you get back you can hopefully finish the cure/drying then. The cold should put everything on hold and a sealed jar will keep them from getting overly dried as there'll probably be a little excess moisture in the stems...so in short, dry them as much as possible, put into canning/fruit jars and store in the fridge until you can get back to them.

[cAnnAmAn12]

sweet thanks bro

[Elecktrablue]

This may not be the best advice for your particular situation, but it may help you to get started in the right direction.

The reasons for curing and not just quick drying your crop are to make the herb sweet smelling and smokable. You want it mild not harsh and you want a good smell and flavor. After all that work don't ruin it with a too quick cure. A good cure lasts for from 3 to 8 weeks but good results can be had in two weeks or so. The idea is to remove the water slowly enough to let biological processes take place that convert the sugars and starches into harmless and flavorful compounds. Sugar or starch will give a harsh smoke that hurts the lungs. Plants need sugars to live on and they produce them from fertilizer and sunlight.
This curing process also breaks down some of the chlorophyll which give herb it's green color. Too much chlorophyll gives an unwanted leafy taste. Your main enemy when you are curing is mold. After pot is dried it's not very susceptible to mold but you have to maintain a certain level of humidity to let the curing process do it's work. The way you control humidity is by controlling how much ventilation you allow. You want some ventilation but not too much. Too much and it dries out without curing properly, too little ventilation and you may get mold. If you see or smell the slightest sign of mold you must immediately stop the cure and let it dry out. If mold is unchecked it can destroy your crop in short order. Mold can be detected by sight and smell. It looks white usually and will be fuzzy. If you see it in one part you can be sure the spores are all over so you
may as well let it dry. Mold also has an odor which is always nasty. Never never smoke herb that has mold on it. You want to avoid light and heat at all times with your crop after it has been harvested. Light will destroy it and temps over about 80 degrees are bad. The best place to store it is in the freezer or fridge. If that's not practical a cool dry dark place will do. You need an enclosure to put your crop in for the cure. Depending on the size of you crop you can use a cardboard box, a closet or an unused room. With the cardboard box you want to hang the plants from a string. Don't just dump everything into the box because the plants on the bottom won't get enough air and may turn moldy. I used to put string across the open top of the box and tape the
ends to the outside. I would crisscross several strings and attach the plants with twist ties. Make sure the box is tall enough for your plants. If it's not tall enough you can cut the plant in half or even cut off each branch and hang it in the box. The plants or branches should be loose and have some space between it and the next. It doesn't take a lot of space just as long as air can circulate. With a closet you do the same thing. You might want to put nails or thumbtacks in the walls for the strings or the clothes hanger bar may be enough. If you use a whole room you need to set up something to keep the plants hanging upside down off the floor. The first few days you allow more ventilation and as the plants get dryer you allow less. In the box leave the top off, with
the closet leave the door open and if you use the whole room leave the door open and use a fan to blow air in. After one or two days you will have lost a good bit of moisture and you can begin to restrict air flow. I used to put a section of newspaper over the top not quite covering the whole top of the cardboard box. As the cure progressed I would cover the top more and more. As soon as the leaves began to get stiff I'd cover the top completely. They still got a little air because the newspaper was not airtight. With a closet after a day or two close the door all except for a couple inches. As the cure progresses and the plants get drier, close the door altogether. Almost all closets have cracks around the door that air can come through. If you have a very large closet
treat it like a room. When using a whole room to cure, after a day or two of letting the fan blow air in, close the door part way. With the room cure it's a good idea to have a fan inside moving the air around and another fan in the doorway blowing fresh air in. Watch the plants very closely to see how fast they are drying. As soon as you notice a little bit of stiffness to the stems they have lost probably 50% of their moisture. When the leaves start to get a little bit crisp you have lost most of the excess moisture and you must restrict ventilation some more. Using a whole room at this point you turn off the fan blowing air in but you leave the door open a little. You never cut off ventilation completely because mold is a threat right up until the end. The leaves should start to
get a little crisp after a week or two. If it happens sooner you may be using too much ventilation and should cut back. Along about this time you should notice a very nice smell. This is the curing smell and it smells a little like baking bread along with a piney or fruity or skunky smell from the pot. This is the nice smell you want your herb to have. If you notice the least bit of a nasty or rotten smell it is probably mold and you need to check very closely. After the leaves start to get a little stiff and you have restricted the air flow it takes anywhere from a week to 6 week more to finish it. When to stop is up to you. You might want to decide by the color of the herb. It gets less green as it goes along. Buds will retain the green color longer than will the leaves. Buds may still
be green at the end of the cure but not quite as bright a shade of green. You will be the proud possessor of a stash of sweet smoking, good tasting buds without the harshness of fresh cured smoke.